reality. . . . Certain members of my family are no more Christians than Epicurus himself was; the discanonisation of this saint of theirs is impossible until something more worthy of devotion is pointed out; but where eyes are shut, nothing can be seen. They would ask, Are we wrong to regard the opinion of the world? what would compensate us for the loss of it? Good heavens, what a question! Is it not to be answered by a word? So I have little of their confidence." His eldest sister Elizabeth, whom he had hoped to win over to his peculiar views, and, in his daydreams, had designed for Hogg, cared more for amusements and worldly advantage than for truth and philosophy. She received with contempt or aversion her brother's teachings as to the evils of legal marriage and the folly of substituting any merely external tie for the true love that binds kindred hearts together.

As a partial substitute for companionship with a sympathetic spirit, Shelley maintained a close correspondence, not merely with Hogg, but also with a Miss Hitchener, a schoolmistress whom he had lately met. Miss Hitchener was some thirty years old, angular and swarthy, but of advanced views and deeply interested in those questions, philosophical and political, for which the young enthusiast most cared. She seemed to Shelley an ideal spirit, with that complete understanding of his point of view and that perfect sympathy for which his heart yearned. Their correspondence treated of the widest and profoundest questions, the existence of God, immortality, political and social equality. To Miss Eliza Westbrook, also, and her sister he from time to time addressed letters, though not finding the former wholly to his mind.

About the beginning of July, Shelley went to Wales to pass some weeks with a cousin. One motive for this journey may have been the wish to meet the Westbrooks, who intended

to spend a part of the summer in the same neighborhood. But Shelley's strongest desire was for the companionship of Hogg; and, as their intercourse was interdicted by his father, he hoped to find, during this absence from home, an opportunity for a clandestine visit. Neither the meeting with the Westbrooks nor that with Hogg took place. The former had already returned to London, and thence came letters from Harriet in quick succession: she was persecuted at home; she must return to school where she was wretched; she had no one to love and was useless in the world; she asked if it would be wrong to put an end to her miserable life. At length came a letter in which she threw herself on Shelley's protection and proposed to fly with him. Shelley hastened to London, and, after the delay of a week or two, eloped with Harriet to Scotland. In Edinburgh, on August 28, 1811, they were married.

It is evident that this connection with Harriet Westbrook was, on Shelley's part, unpremeditated, the result of circumstances, rather than of design. There was certainly no strong passion on his side; he was moved more by the feeling that he was helping a victim of oppression and by the romance of the situation than by the ordinary motives of a love-match. In the letters which passed between him and Hogg during the weeks which immediately preceded the elopement, the question whether legal marriage was or was not permissible to the "illuminated," was discussed. Shelley was in theory opposed to marriage as one of the pernicious forms of oppression imposed and consecrated by society; Hogg argued, on practical grounds, in favor of the legal tie. To Hogg's arguments Shelley yielded; although, he writes, he does not anticipate being "directly called upon to evince his attachment to either theory." "The ties of love and honor," he says in a letter to his friend, dated August 15, "are doubtless of sufficient strength to bind congenial

souls. . . . Yet the argument of impracticability, and, what is even worse, the disproportionate sacrifice which the female is called upon to make, these arguments, which you have urged in a manner immediately irresistible, I cannot withstand." The following extract from a letter to Miss Hitchener, written some two months after the marriage, gives a compendious statement of the facts from Shelley's point of view, and is in every respect most characteristic of the writer.

I will explain, however, the circumstances which caused my marriage; these must certainly have caused much conjecture in your mind. Some time ago, when my sister was at Mrs. Fenning's school, she contracted an intimacy with Harriet. At that period I attentively watched over my sister, designing, if possible, to add her to the list of the good, the disinterested, the free. I desired, therefore, to investigate Harriet's character; for which purpose I called upon her, requested to correspond with her, designing that her advancement should keep pace with, and possibly accelerate, that of my sister. Her ready and frank acceptance of my proposal pleased me; and, though with ideas the remotest to those which have led to this conclusion of our intimacy, I continued to correspond with her for some time. The frequency of her letters became greater during my stay in Wales. I answered them; they became interesting. They contained complaints of the irrational conduct of her relatives, and the misery of living where she could love no one. Suicide was with her a favorite theme, and her total uselessness was urged in its defence. This I admitted, supposing she could prove her inutility, and that she was powerless. Her letters became more and more gloomy. At length one assumed a tone of such despair as induced me to quit Wales precipitately. I arrived in London. I was shocked at observing the alteration of her looks. Little did I divine its cause. She had become violently attached to me, and feared that I should not return her attachment. Prejudice made the confession painful. It was impossible to avoid being much affected; I promised to unite my fate with hers. I stayed in London several days, during which she recovered her spirits. I had promised, at her bidding, to come again to London. They endeavored to compel her to return to school where malice and pride embittered every hour. She wrote to me. I came to London. I proposed marriage, for the reasons which I have

given you, and she complied. Blame me if thou wilt, dearest friend, for still thou art dearest to me; yet pity even this error if thou blamest me. If Harriet be not, at sixteen, all that you are at a more advanced age, assist me to mould a really noble soul into all that can make its nobleness useful and lovely. Lovely it is now, or I am the weakest slave to error.

On hearing of his son's marriage, Mr. Timothy Shelley stopped his allowance, and Mr. Westbrook also refused supplies. Hence great pecuniary embarrassments for the young couple; but, apart from these, the weeks in Edinburgh passed pleasantly enough. Hogg took advantage of a holiday to join them, and the pleasant intercourse of the two friends was renewed. Harriet, with the pliancy of youth, adapted herself to her surroundings; read much, especially aloud; adopted her husband's language, and, so far as she understood them, his ideas, also; and talked much of virtue and perfectibility. When, of necessity, Hogg's visit terminated, the Shelleys accompanied him to York, and were there presently joined by Eliza Westbrook. Eliza, who had naturally great influence over her younger sister, and who did not altogether approve of the ways of the household, took the reins into her own hands, and effected a revolution in the habits of the little circle. An event even more revolutionary was a sudden rupture with Hogg. During a brief absence of her husband and before the arrival of her sister, Hogg, as we gather from Shelley's letters, was guilty of gross misconduct towards Harriet. Shelley writes to Miss Hitchener in reference to Hogg: "We walked to the fields beyond York. I desired to know fully the account of this affair. I heard it from him, and I believe he was sincere. All that I can recollect of that terrible day was that I pardoned him, fully, freely pardoned him; that I would still be a friend to him, and hoped soon to convince him how lovely virtue was; that his crime, not himself, was the object of my detestation;

that I value a human being, not for what it has been, but for what it is; that I hoped the time would come when he would regard this horrible error with as much disgust as I did. He said little; he was pale, terror-struck, remorseful." It is extraordinary that twelve months after an offence of so signal a character as that indicated in this letter, Shelley resumed his friendly relations with Hogg; that the latter was received, apparently on the old footing, not merely by Shelley, but by Harriet and Eliza; and that he was set down for a legacy of £2000 in Shelley's will.

His companionship with Hogg thus suddenly interrupted, his relations to Harriet being rather those of a protector and teacher than of an intellectual equal, Shelley turned with renewed enthusiasm to Miss Hitchener, in whom he seemed to find the possibilities of friendship of the truest and highest character. He writes to her: "I could have borne to die, to die eternally with my once-loved friend [Hogg]. I could coolly have reasoned to the conclusions of reason; I could have unhesitatingly submitted. Earth seemed to be enough for our intercourse; on earth its bounds appeared to be stated, as the event hath dreadfully proved. But with you your friendship seems to have generated a passion to which fifty such fleeting, inadequate existences as these appear to be but a drop in the bucket, too trivial for account. With you, I cannot submit to perish with the flower of the field; I cannot consent that the same shroud which shall moulder around these perishing frames shall enwrap the vital spirit which hath produced, sanctified may I say eternized? a friendship such as ours." Again: "I look upon you as a mighty mind. I anticipate the era of reform with more eagerness as I picture to myself you the barrier between violence and renovation." He is eager that she should become a member of his household. "How Harriet and her sister long to see you! and how I long to see you,